Secretly Recorded by GP

I suppose it's not a million miles away from the elaborate terms and conditions document that come with any service/insurance/contract/software instillation - pages and pages of information for which I suspect the huge majority of people just click 'accept' without reading (myself included). The information was there and I could have spent an hour or 3 reading it to be fully informed but I didn't and will just have to hope that my installing the amazon shopping app on my phone didn't give them access to livestream my camera as part of some really dull video show.

Absolutely, they would need to start and stabilise any specialist medications/titrate to effect, only then would a GP consider continuing the prescription & taking over that care - couldn't do that without continuity/sharing of records.

But it's not like any GP is going to be browsing someone's records for no reason, they're only going to be read through the info if they have to as part of a consultation/decision making process. If the records aren't shared then it just increases the risk of patient harm because continuity is broken. If you want the best opportunity to be safe as a patient you want your Dr to have access to all your records.

From a clinician level you can't really see the extent of how records are shared. For instance as a Paramedic i'll see a patient in crisis/medical event/been assaulted - our notes will just go into the shared record a which any nhs clinician will have access to - so if you goto a podiatrist for example they would have access to that event too. I have no powers to hide it or share it with a particular team, the only option actually is make it so the patient would be unable to view it on the app/records request.

Whilst I don’t personally disagree with my GP recording any calls, I would suggest that the information being on their website isn’t actually informing people. Yes the information is available to those with internet access and the skills to find it but if you have no idea you’re likely to be recorded, you wouldn’t go looking for that 🤷🏻‍♀️ It’s therefore not “informing” it’s “making information available”.

All health information is considered sensitive/private - mental health info isn't treated differently or put on a pedestal. Under the shared records service most records are shared across nhs trusts - I sometimes take shifts in one of the ambulance operations centres and when triaging calls we will access the patients records - obviously you don't know what isn't shared, but comprehensive notes from consultations both from GPs and mental health teams are accessible - but they're treated privately and only viewed in the context of a patient I'm involved in the care of.

I'm aware when I refer into our local mental health team that calls are recorded. The crisis team work out of the same building as me and their calls are recorded. However I can understand why some MH teams wouldn't want their calls recorded - it's a 'high risk' area to work in, patient's will often talk about ending their life but when the clinician knows them and taken in the context of their history it's quite possible that they could be consider them low risk. - and they'd document the conversation appropriately but wouldn't want a recording to be listened back retrospectively.

All access can be monitored - whilst the system would allow me to open pretty much anyones health records you'd absolutely only ever access a patients records that you were triaging/had a justified reason to be in and access is monitored so if I went looking up colleagues/friends/celebrities.

I wouldn’t give my consent either when I got counselling.
My GP already has the tendency to assume all my symptoms are ‘anxiety’ despite many diagnosis by consultants. I’m not going to tell them I’m having counselling/give them more info to feed their story

You know that recording info from the patients in notes (used to be paper, now electronic) is not the same as a voice recording?

The amount of information in a voice recording is huge compared to notes….

Our phone says calls maybe recorded for training and quality purposes. We've never had training but it has been used when someone disputed that the GP had rung him and they had a conversation. The customer is not always right.

If you go to the NHS app (not the Covid one) you will see all your detailed consultations, regardless of it being face 2 face or telephone. How else are they supposed to remember all the details if they don’t record it. Not sure why it’s a problem.

I would complain directly to the information commissioners office if they haven’t acted on your complaint. They should ask consent or at minimum tell you that they are recording and should only keep the recording as long as necessary to make a written medical record.

You are boring me

When would it be deleted, then? I took quality control to mean for the purpose of reviewing and improving service delivery.

Did you read the several times the OP said the GP called her, not the other way round?

Then why the SAR in the first place?

“Nether regions”??
So you had a call w your GP that involved something to do with your vagina or sexual health. You know, the stuff you go to the docs about. No one will be interested in your “lady garden” but your (overworked busy stressed) GP may have the recording to make their notes/have their secretary - if they have one - do it (just like docs dictafone notes) to keep an accurate record and do their job.
What made you request a SAR in the first place?

Did I say deleted immediately? No. Did I say it would be used for training? No?

Your post is contradictory. If the recording is deleted after the GP has made notes, then it’s not available for subsequent use in litigation/defence. And again, if it’s deleted, then how can it be used for training, or for investigating a complaint made at a later date? So is it deleted or not?

Didn’t know until today you can feedback via healthwatch.
(healthwatch.co.uk)

Attended a women’s health festive (a third of the expo in the likes of Birmingham but still incredibly useful far from a day wasted) but there was a healthwatch stand for our county and each county has their own equivalent.

If you refuse permission for your mental health team to share information with your GP it is highly likely that the GP will decline to issue relevant prescriptions - on the very reasonable grounds that the GP is legally responsible for the drugs they prescribe, so must know that they are clinically indicated and appropriate for the individual. Trying to disconnect your hospital team & GP will make your care more challenging.

Are you 100% sure it doesn't say on the beginning of the call "all calls are recorded for quality and training purposes". If it really doesn't then that's bad - contact PALS or the Complaints Commission. I suspect it does though. In which case, it wasn't "secretly recorded" and when you heard that message and then continued with the call, you gave them permission to record the call, so it was recorded WITH your permission and there's nothing to complain about.

Absolutely @Rainingalldayonmyhead I think a lot of the issue is how navel gazing people are these days with an added dose of 'main character syndrome' so many threads on here or social media, convinced everyone and their dog is obsessed or super interested in them and their lives.

1. Call your surgery and listen to the recorded message that kicks in. It will probably tell you 'all calls are recorded '
2. Why are they recorded? Mainly so that there is absolute proof of what was said by whom. So that, in a month or a years time, when you raise a complaint saying ' I was never told I should take statins - where's my lawyer?' when you're laid up in hospital, your surgery can prove that you were but chose not to!! Or, of course, to prove YOU were right!